Parliamentary mission: dialogue between the Russian Federation and the EU can begin at the parliamentary level
Negotiations between Russia and the European Union may begin at the parliamentary level. While the EU leadership has so far rejected the idea of dialogue with Moscow, the MEPs interviewed by Izvestia are already ready for such contacts. Two EP factions advocate the need to restore relations with Moscow, and many MEPs will support direct dialogue with the Russian Federation in the event of significant progress in negotiations between the United States and Russia. Moscow also allows for the possibility of resuming dialogue in the event of an initiative from the Europeans, the Federation Council said. What topics may be on the parliamentarians' agenda can be found in the Izvestia article.
The European Parliament is ready for dialogue with Russia
The deputies from the European Parliament interviewed by Izvestia are already ready for contacts with their Russian counterparts, despite the fact that the EU leadership currently rejects the idea of negotiations with Moscow.
"I am a member of the delegation to the Russia—EU parliamentary cooperation committee, and if this group participated in the negotiations, I would be happy to contribute to the resumption of contacts and mutually beneficial relations that are important for Slovakia and Central Europe," Milan Uhrik, deputy head of the Europe of Sovereign Nations faction in the European Parliament, told Izvestia..
The need to restore relations, or at least dialogue about a possible end to the conflict, is mainly championed by the Europe of Sovereign Nations group and part of the Patriots for Europe faction. They are introducing resolutions on the need for negotiations with the Russian Federation. In total, 720 deputies are sitting in the current convocation of the European Parliament, 27 representatives belong to the Europe of Sovereign Nations faction, and 86 to the Patriots for Europe group.
— Today, we cannot expect that the majority of MEPs will support these resolutions. Their fears may be dispelled when more significant progress is achieved in the negotiations between the Russian Federation and the United States," Ukhrik concluded.
Bulgarian MEP Petar Volgin is also ready to participate in a dialogue with his Russian colleagues. The committee for parliamentary cooperation between the Russian Federation and the EU, which has not held informal meetings in its format since 2019, could become a potential platform, the politician noted.
The Committee was established in accordance with Article 95 of the Russia–EU Partnership and Cooperation Agreement signed in 1994. Representatives of the Federation Council took part in its work from the Russian side, and members of the European Parliament delegation for relations with Russia from the EU side.
The committee's meetings were held twice a year, alternately in Brussels or Strasbourg and in Moscow. The two countries' delegations discussed a variety of issues of bilateral relations, including energy dialogue, respect for human rights, as well as various roadmaps for cooperation with EU member states. However, starting in the spring of 2014, the EP unilaterally suspended all official contacts with the Russian Federation. It is worth noting that travel to Europe is currently limited for many representatives of the Russian government due to sanctions.
The dialogue as a whole has been preserved, but the format has changed: since 2015, annual informal meetings of Russian parliamentarians with members of the European Parliament have been held in Belgrade. They were interrupted due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, in 2021, the European Parliament approved a report on relations between Russia and the European Union, in which it demanded the freezing of dialogue with the Russian Federation. After that, all official and unofficial contacts with the EP were terminated.
What topics can the deputies of the Russian Federation and the EU discuss?
The Federation Council is ready to resume dialogue with the European Parliament in the event of an initiative from the EP, Konstantin Kosachev, deputy chairman of the upper house of the Russian parliament, told Izvestia.
— Dialogue is always better than its absence, the more we have enough. In the European Union, the depth of understanding of what is happening to them, what is happening in Ukraine, tends to zero. Communication with Russian parliamentarians would be useful for them," Kosachev told Izvestia.
Irregular contacts at the level of individual MEPs have been taking place all this time, but there has been no systemic interaction. The initiative to freeze the dialogue did not come from Russia, so the proposal to resume it should be put forward by the European side.
— If this does not happen, then we will definitely not beg for anything and call for something, - concluded Kosachev.
A common dialogue between the Russian Federation and the EU could be launched by starting with the restoration of inter-parliamentary cooperation. Against the background of the freezing of all communication channels, the possibility of communication at the deputy level would make it possible to understand the actions of the other side. In addition, discussions on the humanitarian track should not be excluded. It is worth noting that the example of cooperation between the Russian Federation and the United States shows that the restoration of contacts allowed us to move on to discussing the settlement of the situation in Ukraine.
According to Vladimir Putin, Russia is ready to continue contacts with Western parliamentarians in North America and Europe. What they themselves "don't want is their business," the president emphasized, speaking at a meeting with members of the Legislative Council on April 28. Earlier, Izvestia found out that Russia is ready to resume dialogue with the United States at the parliamentary level. Among the possible topics for discussion by lawmakers are economics, culture and sports. Thanks to the dialogue, Moscow and Washington have managed to unblock bilateral relations, Russian Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Some EU countries are already trying to restore inter-parliamentary dialogue with Russia. In January, a delegation of the Slovak Parliament headed by Deputy Speakers Andrei Danko and Tibor Gaspar visited Russia. This was the first visit of a parliamentary delegation from an EU country to Russia after 2022. Slovak MPs met with the chairmen of both chambers of the Russian parliament, as well as with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov. The sides discussed the development of inter-parliamentary dialogue, strengthening economic cooperation and energy issues.
There are also political forces in other EU countries that are ready for dialogue with the Russian Federation. The leader of the Hungarian parliamentary party "Our Motherland" and a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Laszlo Torockai, said in an interview with Izvestia that he was ready to meet with Russian parliamentarians and come to Russia. Kostadin Kostadinov, chairman of the Bulgarian parliamentary Vozrozhdenie Party, also told Izvestia about plans to come to Moscow to celebrate Victory Day.
Now it is quite difficult to imagine that Russia and the European Parliament will have some kind of common agenda for discussion, since the EP's task is to produce anti-Russian resolutions. But this does not mean that the Russian Federation should not offer. As Alexander Asafov, a member of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, noted in an interview with Izvestia, the effectiveness of the inter-parliamentary dialogue is visible, as well as the inter-party dialogue in the BRICS space and with our other allies.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
